Vision and Values

Our Vision

To support and enable young people to achieve their full and unique potential – emotional, social, moral and spiritual.

The Village Youth Project is a Christian project seeking to reflect God’s love for, and the valuing of, young people. Everyone who works and volunteers in the project accepts the values (listed below) upon which the project is based.

Our Working Values

Everyone is special

Every young person is of unique and great intrinsic worth. Each must be respected, even when challenging to work with. We never swear, or are aggressive or abusive to young people. Staff are of equally great and intrinsic worth and young people will be encouraged to respect staff.

Integrity

We seek in our actions, in what we do, to reflect what we say and believe. We say what we mean (with sensitivity) and mean and do what we say.

Commitment

We work hard to enable young people to achieve their potential. When the tough gets going we stick in there with them. As we seek ‘lives to the full’ for the young people so we seek to ensure staff (paid and voluntary) do not work excessive hours and have the opportunity to develop balanced lives.

Enabling

We support young people (and each other) to develop their skills, abilities and potential and use them for the benefit of others. Therefore we do not jump in to do things for others but look to support them to develop and use their emerging skills.

Confidentiality

We share specific, private information on a need to know basis and within supervision systems. We do not gossip about others and we do not create negative reputations for anyone.

Constructive Criticism

We rigorously debate our differences of opinion and see such debate as health and positive. Once a decision is made we work wholeheartedly towards that goal.

Listening

We listen to each other and don’t jump in with our own views before considering others. This reflects our respect for each other.

Mutual Encouragement

Honest praise and encouragement are great motivators. We seek to identify opportunities to praise and encourage young people and fellow workers and we celebrate success.

Rigour

We act and make decisions on what makes a difference to the quality of life of the young people we support. When necessary we take hard decisions.

Teamwork

We recognise each other’s different skills, experiences and abilities and seek to use them to work as a team and to support each other in good and bad times.